Nitender hogs limelight on day one

The country's top-four male runners broke the 14-minute barrier in the 5,000m track event on the opening day of the 17th Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships in Patiala.

The day's honour went to Uttarakhand's Nitender Singh, who breasted the tape in 13m 55.28 seconds.

Kheta Ram of Rajasthan, Mohd Yunus from Maharashtra and Suresh Kumar of ONGC finished in that order and posted sub-14-minute timings. It was the first time in five years that top runners dipped below 14m.

The performance of the distance runners, however, overshadowed the women's pole vault, where Kyathi Vakharia crossed the bar at 4m. But there weren't fireworks in the men's 100m event as Maharashtra's Siddanth Thingalaya, a hurdle specialist, won the title comfortably.